2025 Scotties starts Friday!

Team Homan begins title defence in opening draw in Thunder Bay

Reigning Canadian and world champions Team Rachel Homan of Ottawa will start its quest for back-to-back gold medals when the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts kicks off Friday at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Team Canada — Homan is backed up by vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes and alternate Rachel Brown — will take in Prince Edward Island’s Team Jane DiCarlo (Crapaud) in Friday night’s opening draw at 7 p.m. (all times Eastern).

It’ll be one of four opening-night Valentine’s Day matchups at the Canadian Women’s Curling Championship, which returns to Thunder Bay three years after the 2022 edition had to be played in a mostly fan-free environment due to pandemic restrictions.

This time around, crowds will be filling the Fort William Gardens — not only to watch Homan’s defending champs’ quest for a repeat, but also to watch their hometown heroes, Northern Ontario’s Team Krista McCarville, who are in action Friday against Saskatchewan’s Team Nancy Martin (Saskatoon).

The other Draw 1 matchups have Team Alberta-Skrlik (Kayla Skrlik, Calgary) taking on New Brunswick’s Team Melissa Adams (Fredericton); and B.C.’s Team Corryn Brown (Kamloops) is up against Team Alberta-Sturmay (Selena Sturmay, Edmonton).

The 2025 Scotties will feature 18 teams — Team Canada (defending champions Team Rachel Homan of Ottawa), three Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) qualifiers (Team Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., Team Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg, Team Selena Sturmay of Edmonton) and 14 provincial/territorial champions.

Teams will play a complete eight-game round robin within their pools. From there, the top three teams in each pool advance to the playoffs.

There will be no tiebreakers; if teams are tied for a playoff spot, head-to-head results will be the first tiebreaker, and if that doesn’t resolve the tie, Last-Shot Draw rankings will rank the teams — the same formula used at World Championship events and the Winter Olympics.

The playoff format will see the first-place team from Pool A meeting second place from Pool B, and vice versa, in the first round of the playoffs Friday, Feb. 21, at 1 p.m., with the winners going directly to the Page playoff 1-2 game, while the losers meet the third-place finishers in the pools Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. The winners of those games will advance to the Page playoff 3-4 game.

The standard Page playoffs commence with the winner of the Page 1v2 game on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m., advancing directly to the final, and the loser playing the winner of the Page 3v4 game (scheduled for 1 p.m. on Feb. 22) in the semifinal. 

The semifinal (Sunday, Feb. 23, at 1 p.m.) winner takes on the winner of the Page 1v2 game in the final at 7 p.m. on Sunday. The winner will represent Canada at the 2025 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship March 15-23 in Uijeongbu, South Korea.

Here’s a look at how the two pools are set up:

(Teams listed according to overall seeding based on CTRS standings as of today, and listed in order of skip [player calling the shots], vice-skip [player holding the broom for the skip], second, lead, alternate, coach/High Performance Consultant)

* — denotes provincial champion for provinces with more than one team representing.

Pool A

• 1. Team Canada, Rachel Homan (Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew, Sarah Wilkes, Rachel Brown; Ottawa)
• 4. Alberta-Sturmay, Selena Sturmay (Danielle Schmiemann, Dezaray Hawes, Paige Papley, Ted Appelman; Edmonton)
• *-5. Alberta-Skrlik, Kayla Skrlik (Geri-Lynn Ramsay [throws lead rocks], Margot Flemming, Ashton Skrlik, Crystal Rumberg, Shannon Kleibrink; Calgary)
• 8. British Columbia, Corryn Brown (Erin Pincott, Sarah Koltun, Sam Fisher, Kristen Ryan, Jim Cotter; Kamloops)
• 9. Northern Ontario, Krista McCarville (Andrea Kelly, Kendra Lilly, Ashley Sippala, Sarah Potts, Rick Lang; Thunder Bay)
• 12. Saskatchewan, Nancy Martin (Deanna Doig [throws lead rocks], Chaelynn Stewart, Kadriana Lott, Colleen Ackerman, Sherry Anderson; Saskatoon)
• 13. New Brunswick, Melissa Adams (Jaclyn Crandall, Kayla Russell, Kendra Lister, Molli Ward, Alex Robichaud; Fredericton)
• 16. Prince Edward Island, Jane DiCarlo [throws third stones] (Veronica Mayne [throws fourth stones], Sabrina Smith, Whitney Jenkins, Jenny White, Kathy O’Rourke; Crapaud)
• 17. Nunavut, Julia Weagle (Sadie Pinksen, Leigh Gustafson, Alison Taylor, Colin Hodgson; Iqaluit)

Pool B

• 2. Manitoba-Einarson, Kerri Einarson (Val Sweeting, Karlee Burgess, Krysten Karwacki, Lauren Lenentine, Reid Carruthers; Gimli)
• 3. Manitoba-Lawes, Kaitlyn Lawes (Selena Njegovan, Jocelyn Peterman, Kristin Gordon, Becca Hebert, Connor Njegovan; Winnipeg)
• 6. Nova Scotia, Christina Black (Jill Brothers, Jennifer Baxter, Karlee Everist, Marlee Powers, Stuart MacLean)
• *-7. Manitoba-Cameron, Kate Cameron (Taylor McDonald, Brianna Cullen, Mackenzie Elias, Glenn Howard; Winnipeg)
• 10. Ontario, Danielle Inglis (Kira Brunton, Calissa Daly, Cassandra de Groot, Kimberly Tuck, Steve Acorn; Ottawa)
• 11. Quebec, Laurie St-Georges (Jamie Sinclair, Emily Riley, Lisa Weagle, François Roberge; Glenmore/Laval-sur-le-Lac/Dollard-Des Ormeaux/Laval)
• 14. Northwest Territories, Kerry Galusha (Sydney Galusha [throws second], Megan Koehler, Shona Barbour, Ella Skauge, Amber Holland; Yellowknife)
• 15. Newfoundland & Labrador, Brooke Godsland (Erin Porter, Sarah McNeil Lamswood, Camille Burt, Kate Paterson, Cory Schuh; St. John’s)
• 18. Yukon, Bayly Scoffin (Kerry Foster, Raelyn Helston, Bailey Horte, Kimberly Tuor, Kevin Patterson; Whitehorse)

Note: Because some matchups featuring the pre-qualified teams were pre-set as part of ticket-marketing campaigns, the pools were adjusted based on the approved seeding methodology as worked on in collaboration with Curling Canada’s Athlete Council.

For the entire 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts schedule, click here.

Single-draw tickets can be purchased online at curling.ca/tickets and in-person at the Fort William Gardens box office during regular business hours.

For any inquiries, fans can call the box office at 807-625-2929.

TSN/RDS, the official broadcast partners of Curling Canada’s Season of Champions, will provide complete coverage of the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. CLICK HERE for the broadcast schedule.